To register for this event, either scan the QR code above or follow this link:  Colson Whitehead Registration

“Kicking off our third season, we are thrilled to welcome two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead to our Illinois libraries. The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys, Harlem Shuffle, The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and a collection of essays, Whitehead is only the fourth writer to win two Pulitzers in the Fiction category (for The Underground Railroad in 2017 and The Nickel Boys in 2020). His highly anticipated latest novel, Crook Manifesto, is a darkly funny tale of a city under siege, but also a sneakily searching portrait of the meaning of family.

“His reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta. Whitehead has received a MacArthur Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, among others. In 2023, President Biden awarded Whitehead a National Endowment for the Humanities Medal. He has taught extensively, including at Columbia University, Princeton University, and Brooklyn College, and has been a Writer-in-Residence at Vassar College, the University of Richmond, and University of Wyoming. He lives in New York City.”

Whitehead will be joined by Tochi Onyebuchi, a science fiction and fantasy writer. “Onyebuchi is the author of Goliath; Riot Baby, a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and NAACP Image Awards and winner of the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Ignyte Award for Best Novella, and the World Fantasy Award; the Beasts Made of Night series; and the War Girls series. His short fiction has appeared in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The Year’s Best Science Fiction, and elsewhere. His non-fiction includes the book (S)kinfolk and has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, and the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, among other places. He has earned degrees from Yale University, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia Law School, and the Paris Institute of Political Studies. He currently resides in Connecticut.” You can learn more about Onyebuchi by visiting his website.

If you are unable to attend the Zoom event, but wish to view the recording later, you must still register as a participant. All registrants will have a link sent via email to the recording. The email will also contain the password needed to access the recording as well as the expiration date for accessing the recorded video. The event will be live captioned.

This event is made possible by Illinois Libraries Present, a statewide collaboration among public libraries offering premier events. ILP is funded in part by a grant awarded by the Illinois State Library, a department of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).